Defending Florida's Ecosystems & Communities

The Experimental Program

In November 1983, as a result of adverse effects within Everglades National Park related to high rainfall and water management practices in south Florida, Congress enacts legislation (the Supplemental Appropriations Act) authorizing the “Experimental Program,” which allows the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), with consent of the National Park Service and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) to deviate from the minimum water delivery schedule established by Congress in 1970, with the goal of improving the location, timing and volume of water deliveries to the Park. The Park had sought to change inappropriate deliveries of water to the Park in the dry season, as well as the limited scope of how water was delivered (through the S-12 structures only).